Global supply chains: Why they emerged, why they matter, and where they are going

Global supply chains have transformed the world. They revolutionized development options facing poor nations; now they can join supply chains rather than having to invest decades in building their own. The offshoring of labour-intensive manufacturing stages and the attendant international mobility of technology launched era-defining growth in emerging markets, a change that fosters and is fostered by domestic policy reform (Cattaneo et al., 2010 and Baldwin, 2011b). This reversal of fortunes constitutes perhaps the most momentous global economic change in the last 100 years.